Of Magic And Bathtubs
by Rainstorm Amaya Arianrhod
Summary: Magical accidents are common in the Salmalin household, and they have their consequences. It's not easy being an invisible dragon...


**A/N:** Drabble for LunaSphere, 200th Tales reviewer. :) Thanks, Luna!

**Disclaimer:** Not mine.

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The Rider stepped backwards out of her pony's stall to admire the effects of her work with a curry-comb, met an unexpected obstacle, and fell over backwards with a distinctly feminine squeak of horror followed by some unladylike swearwords. In the noise, a stifled trill went unnoticed.

"Miri?" Evin said questioningly, ducking out of his own pony's stall and looking down at his friend. "Have you mastered the fine art of tripping over a straw?"

Miri scowled at him and extended an imperious hand; almost absently, he helped her up. She brushed off her breeches and tunic, glaring at the floor. "I fell over _something_, I know that much."

Evin looked around, and, with an air of stating the obvious, said: "Miri, there isn't anything to fall over."

"Except I did," Miri pointed out.

"You have been known to trip on pebbles," Evin reminded her in a reasonable tone of voice, and lifted his arms in self-defence when she slapped him, hard. There was a lot to be said for unarmed combat training.

"I was tipsy, and that was _your_ fault anyway."

"Excuse me! I fail to see how your having had one too many is my fault!"

The bickering continued for some time, neither Rider realising that a roughly dragon-shaped transparent patch was creeping silently along the stables, away from them.

Kitten resisted the urge to trill her annoyance at stupid Riders who stepped backwards at just the wrong moment, and mournfully contemplated the fact that she was invisible. Nobody was going to see her ever ever _ever _again, not even Daine, who was so clever and nice (even if a bit silly about taking baths), and she would have to run away and hide in the forest and eat worms so people wouldn't call her a ghost! Sometimes, Kitten thought grumpily once she had escaped the stables and was crouching by a fishpond, watching the carp swim round and round, she loathed Daine's kits. Especially the littler one. They leaked! And not just icky stuff that made even her want to take a bath, but magic! It was the littler one who was responsible for this mess she was in, she moaned to herself, hooking a carp out of the pond and petrifying a first-year page, who saw a fish apparently leap out of the pond and tear apart all by itself.

The littler one- Rikash –was much messier about magic than his big sister. It just seemed to spill out of him whenever he was pleased or cross or ill or tired- all the time, in fact. And this time had been particularly bad.

It had been over an especially riotous breakfast. Sarralyn was refusing to eat eggs or bacon and throwing a tantrum over Daine's insistence that she had to, Numair wasn't paying attention to anything other than the new theory he'd just put together so he was pouring salt into his tea and spreading butter on his bacon and earning tart comments from his wife, and Rikash was gleefully flinging spoonfuls of stewed apple across the room. _A nice mess for someone to clear up, I shouldn't think_, Kitten grumbled to herself, remembering how she'd spent an unpleasant half-hour under the breakfast table to escape the flying stewed apple until she had actually been kicked by Sarralyn and had shot arrow-like out from under the table and it had been then, yes then, that Rikash chose to dump several hedgewitches' worth of Gift all over the place. Transparency had suddenly splattered across the room, making Numair cry out in startlement, Sarralyn howl, and Daine call loudly on any gods who might be listening to please intercede with her stupid family before she had an apoplexy. Kitten, shrieking ear-piercingly, fled the room, galloping invisibly through the palace corridors and knocking servants, pages, nobles and soldiers over like skittles. She'd only realised she was invisible when, slightly more rational, she had found Harailt of Aili's office and scratched on the door, whining to be let in, only for that worthy to stick his head out, look around, and declare it must be a stupid student joke because there was nobody there.

And now, Kitten thought, she was invisible. She let out a little distressed whine and licked at a bit of stewed apple that had somehow caught her and not been licked off already, as well as some glittering scales left over from the carp which looked like sequins stuck to thin air. Well, she supposed it was time to go back to the madhouse and see if poor Daine was all right.

She trotted wearily back through the palace to the brass-plated door, and scratched at the special post, adding a trill for good measure. Daine opened the door, clean, relaxed and smelling like she did when she'd just had a long scented bath, and smiled. She knew who Kitten was, even if she couldn't see anything but a few stray scales. "Oh, my poor Kit." Daine knelt down and picked up Kitten like a toddler, supporting the dragon's hindquarters but allowing the dragon to rest front paws and chin on her shoulder. "Let's get that spell gone and you cleaned up. Have you been eating carp from the pond again?"

Ah, that was right. The world was spinning the right way again, and all was as normal as it ever was in the Salmalín household.

Kitten spared a glance over her shoulder and whined- for there, steaming and deadly, was a large tub full of hot water, a cake of soap beside it.

_Oh no- not the bath- I don't want a _bath_!_


End file.
